Alabama State Hornets Vs. Eastern Michigan - The Game

So as I said in the last post, Alabama State won the coin toss and decided to receive the opening kickoff.
EMU kicker Mike Yocum kicks off the opening kick off and the game gets under way. The EMU special teams were actually pretty good. The punter got a few deep and I don't think Alabama State got past the 20 on any of the kickoffs.

Gregory Jenkins preparing to pass. It seemed like he made a few completions but it also seemed like Eastern's defense was swarming him and forcing him to scramble quite a bit.

Marcus English making a nice open field tackle. It seemed like his name came up quite a bit.

Kody Fulkerson kicking the extra point after EMU's first touchdown. It seemed like Eastern marched ball right down the field on the first drive in a pretty efficient manner. I thought I would be hearing the touchdown cannon quite a bit.

Quendarius McKibben running the ball back after the kickoff.

This was a swearing in ceremony for ROTC scholarship students.

Bobby Wenzig punting the ball away. It seemed like this happened fairly often.

Marcus English picked up the ball after an Alabama State fumble. He managed to run it into the endzone. Unfortunately, all for naught as the runner was ruled down before the fumble. Oh well, it was a pretty sweet run.

Dominique Sherrer running the ball. He had a very solid game until he pulled out for an injury (or something).

Nick Andrews after a catch. They were passing the ball pretty well but it didn't seem like they were getting many yards after the catch.

This picture pretty much sums up EMU's passing game yesterday. It seemed like there were a ton of passes off the mark or just not caught. They need to improve this if they want a shot at the Wolverines.

Devin Dominnquez on the turf after a sack. It seemed like this happened quite a bit during the game.

The EMU marching band taking the field at halftime. This is one of the reasons why I like going to the game. If you watch games on TV, they usually switch to some bobbleheads prattling on about how dominant the SEC is or something. I hate bobbleheads and I would rather listen to some band's rendition of a popular song.

The Alabama State Marching band taking the field. They had a very animated halftime show and it was very neat to watch.

Another shot of their band.

The Alabama State Dance team. They were really good.

The drum majors were also very neat to watch.

Sort of a dance during one of the songs.

A more or less closeup of the Alabama State band.

During halftime, there was a commissioning of a Second Lieutenant.

This is the person administering the oath.

It is a tradition that a newly minted officer has to give a silver dollar to the first person that salutes them. I wish I would have had my smaller lens so that I could have gotten a better shot of this.

Swoop the Eagles Mascot. When I went to school at EMU, we were the Hurons until 1991. Ever since then, the teams have been known as the Eagles. I still don't like the name but I guess I'm getting used to it.

Garrett Hoskins running with the ball after a catch.

Alex Gillett running with the ball. It seemed like he was running the ball quite a bit. But he had a couple nice runs and I think this was one of them.

The last run set up this run.....

....which led to Sherrer scoring Eastern's second touchdown.

McKibben running the ball after the kickoff.

I think this was also during the kickoff.

Alabama State managed to score a touchdown, bringing the deficit to 7 and also bringing their crowd back to life.

Gillett about to pass the ball.

Cornerback Markinley Saint Fort trying to get the Alabama State crowd going.

One of my favorite shots.

Tim Clark running the ball.

Gillett running the ball again. It still seemed like this was happening too much as Alabama State was able to get some pressure on him. I hope the blocking gets better for the Wolverines as well.

Running Back Greene getting crunched duirng a run. It seemed like he was having a pretty good game too.

The handoff to Greene.

Greene running the ball.

One of the Alabama State coaches calling plays.

Marlon Pollard running the ball back during a punt return. He had some pretty long punt returns.

And the game ending sack.

Eastern ended up winning the game 14-7. I wish I could say more good things about it but I really can't. It seemed like they took alot of stupid penalties during the game. A couple of times, those penalties gave Alabama State a new set of downs after Eastern held them pretty well. It seemed like Eastern coughed up the ball a couple of times and they were fortunate Alabama State couldn't capitalize on that.

I'm excited to see that Eastern will play Michigan next weekend but I'm not terribly hopeful that their will be a different outcome from their other meetings.